Palatinose for Hybrid Athletes: The Low-Glycemic Carb Most Gels Skip

Walk into any running store and look at the energy gel wall. Pick up five at random. Read the ingredients.

Almost every one will list maltodextrin or glucose syrup as the first carb. Both are high-glycemic. They hit your bloodstream fast, spike your insulin, and crash you ten minutes later if you take them at the wrong time. That's a problem if you're trying to fuel an hour of training without bonking.

There's a better carb for the job. It's been studied for decades, it's used by sports nutrition formulators who actually read the research, and it's almost completely absent from the energy gel category. It's called Palatinose, and many athletes have still never heard of it.

What is Palatinose

Palatinose is the brand name for a carbohydrate called isomaltulose. Both names refer to the same molecule, and you'll see them used interchangeably in scientific papers.

Chemically, it's a disaccharide — a glucose molecule and a fructose molecule bonded together. The molecule itself is naturally derived from sugar beet through an enzymatic process. 

That small structural change is the entire story. Sucrose has its glucose and fructose joined by an α-1,2 bond, which your gut splits quickly. Palatinose has them joined by an α-1,6 bond, which takes longer to break apart. The slower breakdown is why your body absorbs it more steadily, and why the metabolic response looks completely different from the typical sugars in energy gels.

The result: same calories per gram as sugar (4 kcal/g), same fully-digested energy availability, but spread out over a much longer window. 

Why glycemic index matters for endurance

Glycemic index (GI) measures how fast a carbohydrate raises blood sugar after you eat it. The scale runs from 0 to 100, where pure glucose is set at 100.

Here's how the common energy gel carbs compare:

Why does this matter for an endurance athlete?

When you eat high-GI carbs at rest, your blood sugar spikes. Your pancreas releases a surge of insulin to bring it back down. Insulin is the body's "store this" signal — it pushes glucose into cells and, importantly, shuts down fat burning. If you take a maltodextrin gel 30 minutes before a workout, you can end up in the worst possible state: blood sugar crashing, insulin still elevated, and your body unable to access either stored carbs or stored fat efficiently. You feel shaky and weak when the gun goes off.

Low-GI carbs avoid that crash because they release glucose slowly enough that insulin never has to spike. You stay in a metabolic state where your body can burn both fat and the slow-release glucose at the same time. That's the state you want when you're walking up to a workout.

What the research actually shows

Two studies are particularly relevant here. They're both well-controlled, peer-reviewed, and focused on real-world athletic performance.

König et al, 2016: Palatinose vs. maltodextrin in cyclists

A team at the University of Freiburg ran a double-blind randomized trial with 20 trained male cyclists. Each athlete completed two trials, 45 minutes apart in protocol: 75g of either Palatinose or maltodextrin, followed by 90 minutes of cycling at 60% VO₂max, followed by an all-out time trial.

The results:

• Fat oxidation was higher with Palatinose vs. maltodextrin (88–99% probability of benefit, p=0.005). The Palatinose group burned more fat during the endurance phase.
• Carbohydrate oxidation was lower with Palatinose, meaning the body was sparing its glycogen stores for later (85–96% probability of benefit, p=0.002).
• Blood glucose was more stable across the entire ride.
• Time trial performance was better with Palatinose — athletes finished 2.7% faster and produced 4.6% more power in the final 5 minutes.

That last point is the one that matters most. The "save it for the end" effect is exactly what every endurance athlete is trying to engineer.

Miyashita et al, 2023: Palatinose and post-endurance sprint power

A more recent study took 13 trained athletes through a similar protocol: pre-exercise carb (Palatinose or sucrose), followed by 90 minutes of running, followed by a 30-second all-out Wingate test — the maximum-effort anaerobic sprint that mirrors how a HYROX athlete attacks wall balls at the end of a race.

Findings:

• Athletes consuming Palatinose maintained a more stable metabolic state through the 90-minute run
• They produced significantly higher peak anaerobic power in the post-endurance sprint

This second study is the more directly applicable one for hybrid athletes. It's not just measuring "can you finish the endurance portion better", it's measuring "can you still throw down explosive power after the endurance portion." That's what every Hyrox athlete needs at the end of the race.

Why most gels skip it

If Palatinose is so well-suited for endurance fueling, why don't more gels use it?

Three reasons:

1. It's more expensive

Maltodextrin is the cheapest functional carb on the market. It's a corn-derived ingredient that costs commodity prices and dissolves easily into any liquid. Palatinose is enzymatically processed from sugar beet. More steps, more cost. For a brand competing on shelf price, swapping out 22g of maltodextrin for 22g of Palatinose can add real money to every unit.

2. The legacy gel category was built around glucose

The original energy gels, the ones that defined the category in the late 1990s and early 2000s, were built for marathoners and ultra-cyclists who needed fast carbs during long events. In that use case, high-GI carbs work fine: you're already deep in adrenaline, insulin is suppressed, and you want fuel that hits your bloodstream quickly. The category was optimized for that scenario.

The problem: hybrid athletes taking energy gels today aren't in that scenario. They're taking a gel before a 60-minute training session. They're CrossFit athletes fueling for a competition workout. They're HYROX competitors prepping for a 70-minute race. For all of these, the high-GI assumption doesn't hold, and a pre-workout maltodextrin spike works against them.

3. Many brands haven't updated their formulations in 15 years

If you formulated a gel in 2010 and it's been selling well, there's no commercial reason to reformulate. Loyal customers keep buying, the brand stays profitable, and the R&D cost of a new formulation is real. So the energy gel category quietly stagnated while sports nutrition science kept moving.

Why this matters for hybrid athletes

Hybrid training is where Palatinose's properties matter most.

A pure marathoner spends 3+ hours in steady-state aerobic effort. A pure lifter spends 60 minutes alternating between near-max effort and rest. Hybrid athletes do both, often in the same session: runs, sled pushes, burpees, wall balls, lunges. The energy demands look more like a 60–90 minute interval workout than either pure endurance or pure strength.

That has specific implications:

• Glycogen depletes faster than in steady cardio. The strength stations burn through stored carbs at a rate closer to a lifting session. You can't just "carb up and cruise."
• You need to perform explosive efforts after sustained aerobic work. The end of a HYROX race is the wall balls station — 100 reps after 75+ minutes of running and strength work. That's a Wingate test in race conditions.
• GI distress is a constant risk. High-impact running plus high-intensity strength work plus a stomach full of fast-absorbing sugars is a recipe for cramping. You need fuel that doesn't overwhelm your gut.

The properties of Palatinose line up almost perfectly with these demands:

1. Glycogen sparing during the aerobic portions means you've got more in the tank for the late stations
2. Higher anaerobic power after sustained effort (the Miyashita finding) is exactly what you need for the wall balls finish
3. Low osmolarity and slow absorption minimizes the cramping and bloating risk that comes from chugging a high-glucose gel mid-race

This is the entire reason we built our Energy gel around Palatinose. The research is most directly applicable to the type of athlete we built the product for.

How to use Palatinose in your fueling

The "when" and "how much" matters more than people realize.

Pre-workout: 10 minutes before

The standard recommendation in the research is to take Palatinose 30–45 minutes before exercise, because that's when the studies dosed it. In practice, with an energy gel that pairs Palatinose with a small amount of faster-acting carbs, the right window is closer to 10 minutes before training.

Why 10? Because that's when adrenaline has started rising (which suppresses insulin response) but before you've started burning glycogen. Take a low-GI gel in that window and you stack the adrenaline-suppression effect on top of the slow-release carb. You feel strong from the first rep.

If your gel is pure maltodextrin or glucose, you can't take it 10 minutes out — you'll crash. Low-GI Palatinose is what makes the 10-minute window work.

During training: 30–60g of carbs per hour

For sessions over 60 minutes, you'll want continued fueling. Take another gel every 20–30 minutes during long workouts or races. Mid-workout, the adrenaline-insulin dynamic means faster carbs are tolerated and used rapidly, but Palatinose-based gels still benefit on gut comfort and steady blood sugar.

Don't take it too early

One mistake to avoid: don't take a low-GI carb 60–90 minutes before training, hoping it'll "kick in just in time." It doesn't work that way. Palatinose's effect on metabolism is most useful when it's still releasing energy during the workout itself. Take it too early and most of the benefit is gone before you start.

FAQ

Is Palatinose the same as isomaltulose?

Yes. Palatinose is the brand name used for the ingredient. Isomaltulose is the chemical name. They refer to the same molecule, and both names appear in scientific papers and on product labels.

Is Palatinose safe?

Yes. Palatinose has been studied extensively for over 30 years and has GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) status in the US. It's used in food products globally and has been shown safe across a wide range of populations including children, athletes, and people managing diabetes.

Will Palatinose cause GI distress?

Significantly less than high-glycemic carbs. Palatinose has low osmolarity — meaning it doesn't pull water into the gut the way fast sugars do — and its slow breakdown means there's no large bolus of unabsorbed sugar sitting in your intestine during exercise. For most athletes, gels built on Palatinose are noticeably easier on the stomach than glucose or maltodextrin gels.

Can I get Palatinose from food?

In small amounts, yes — it occurs naturally in honey and sugarcane juice. But to get the doses studied in research (25–75g pre-exercise), you'd need a supplement or a fueling product. There's no practical way to hit that target through normal eating.

Does Palatinose work for diabetics?

Palatinose has been studied as a sugar alternative for people managing blood sugar. Its low glycemic response means it produces much smaller blood sugar swings than sucrose. That said, anyone with diabetes should consult their doctor before changing their carb intake — this article is about athletic performance, not medical advice.

Is Palatinose vegan?

Yes. It's derived from sugar beet through an enzymatic process and contains no animal-derived ingredients.

Why don't more energy gels use Palatinose?

Three reasons: it costs more than maltodextrin, the legacy energy gel category was built around fast carbs for marathon-style use, and most brands haven't reformulated their products in 10–15 years even as sports nutrition research has moved on. Hybrid training has created demand for a different kind of fuel, one most brands haven't caught up to yet.

What's the best way to try Palatinose?

Find a gel that lists Palatinose or isomaltulose as the primary carb (not just as a minor ingredient). Take one 10 minutes before a normal training session and see how the workout feels. Most athletes notice the difference within their first session, especially in the second half of the workout.

The right carb for the right moment

Most energy gels are built for a use case that doesn't match what hybrid athletes actually do. They assume you're already mid-effort, already in adrenaline, and that fast carbs are what you need. For pre-workout fueling and for daily training, that's the wrong assumption.

Palatinose is the carb that matches the real demand: steady energy in, no crash, no gut issues, and the metabolic flexibility to still go hard at the end. It's been backed by research for years. It's just been mostly ignored by the gel category.

That's why we built our Energy gel around it.